Let's review some points.
Originally Posted by
RexBanner
Uplinker please know (or indeed remember) a fact about the A330 when discussing the performance of the First Officer that night, the A330 stall warner is suppressed below 60 knots because the computers believe the aircraft to be on the ground below that speed.
The stall warning is suppressed below 60 kts IAS because below that value, the AoA reading are deemed unreliable. The fact that this also avoids false alarm when on the ground is incidental, not (prime) causal.
Originally Posted by
RexBanner
It is incredibly unfortunate because when the First Officer was pulling back on the stick the audible warnings were going away. Therefore he (wrongly) believed he was doing the right thing at the time. From what I read about the crash the picture in the flight deck was incredibly confused and I don't think they really trusted anything instrument wise.
The F/Os (both) were confused before that point. They didn't react to the Stall Warning. I agree that the S/W suppression would only have added more confusion (and perhaps prevented the CPT of making his mind on what really was ongoing when he came back to the F/D) but the crew mistrusted instruments early, i.e. before that S/W suppression. Maybe, maybe, if the S/W had not been suppressed, the outcome would have been better. But that's only a guess, seeing how the S/W was previously ignored.
Originally Posted by
RexBanner
Would anyone conceive that an airborne A330 could be travelling at an airspeed LESS than 60 knots? Incredible but all so sadly true in this case.
To be precise, it was not exactly true. The sensed IAS was below 60 kts. The real IAS was somewhere above 100 kts (as calculated later), but the extreme AoA prevented the fixed-axis pitot probes to catch all the dynamic pressure. Sad.
Originally Posted by
RexBanner
It is highly possibly he believed the aircraft to be overspeeding given the lack of airspeed information and an audible warning that went away when he applied back pressure.
This is possible indeed. Was not voiced as such, so we don't know. And would imply that "STALL STALL" was not recognized as what it means, so it's sadly not better for the crew.